This section is very interesting, and also causes us problems. Why is there this emphasis on the Sabbath? Some churches take a very strict attitude towards the Sabbath (though, of course, it has now become Sunday, which does seem to rather weaken the point), most are ambivalent. It should also help us to appreciate something of why so many of the clash points between Jesus and the Pharisees focused on the Sabbath.
Why is the Sabbath so central and so important? The reason, I believe, is because it is a fundamental symbol of whether or not the nation truly relied on God, truly trusted Him. By resting from their labours, and the Sabbath years,they would have demonstrated that they knew it was the Lord who supplied them with all that they needed. By working on the Sabbath, by carrying on in the normal way, they were saying that they really thought it was their own efforts that were paramount.
Now we need to ask ourselves the question. Do we really believe that ultimately it is God who provides? Or, as it says in Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house the builders labour in vain?
Now the Pharisees had demonstrated the deceitfulness of man's heart that we read about earlier in this chapter. They turned this God trusting ordinance into a man-centred rule, and so it became ungodly and enslaving instead of liberating. Sadly, we are very good at turning what God intended to bring freedom, into something that is enslaving.
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